Former Osage Chief talks ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ exposure, concerns

TULSA, Okla. — Former Osage Chief Jim Gray is getting global attention after a Twitter post reviewing the new movie, “Killers of the Flower Moon.”

Gray is also the great-grandson of Henry Roan — whose murder was depicted in the film and book. Gray had the opportunity to watch the movie in a private screening before its premier out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival in France last week.

The movie details what some call the “Reign of Terror” on the Osage Nation, where an unknown number of indigenous people were murdered for their land rights.

Many Osage members have expressed concerns over the movie. Being a Hollywood production, some worried the movie would miss the heart of the story — the Osage people. After watching the film, Gray said the movie captured the Osage people in a way never seen before.

“My main concern was whether or not all that work of collaboration that the tribe engaged in and in leading up to its premier was going to present itself on the screen,” Gray said. “I’m happy to report that I thought it did.”

Osage members helped design clothing and sets and even helped the actors learn their native language.
“The recognition of the way a woman wore a blanket, for example, or things of that nature that would only be made possible had they not listened to the tribe and allowed us to contribute,” he said.

Another concern for some Osage was the commercialization of the tribe. One group even trying to sell tours of the grave site where Mollie Burkhart and much of her family is burried, Gray said.

The book, movie and sudden interest in the tribe have made some members nervous, but he said the way this movie was produced should be a playbook for films made about indigenous people in the future.

Making the movie in Oklahoma on the Osage reservation was also expensive for filmmakers, but Gray thinks the collaboration paid off.

“The decision to film it here was an expensive one on the filmmakers part, but the end result was a movie that actually has the look and feel of authenticity of what the Osage Nation looked like in the 1920’s,” he said. “They really hit it out the park on that point. I don’t know enough about the business to know whether or not that is the kind of they give academy awards for, but I hope they do. They really went all out.”

Leonardo DiCaprio stars in the movie as Ernest Burkhart, who married Mollie, played by Lily Gladstone. Robert DeNiro plays William Hale, who was connected to several of the Osage murders.

Oklahoma Historical Society

Gray also spoke about how important it is that Osage women specifically were central to this story, noting he has four older sisters and five daughters — all Osage women.

“There is absolutely no way in the world that the Osage women’s role should be understated or unappreciated,” he said. “To find that they were specifically targeted for murder in this film is one of the many reasons why this is such a painful period in our tribe’s history.”

Gray, like most Osage, only learned bits and pieces of the history from family members, but he said many weren’t sure it was safe to talk about publicly and the weight of what happened was hard to bare.

“As time went on and other books started coming out in the 90’s, the Dennis McAuliffe book, it triggered my interest back then,” he said. “It’s a difficult story for us. I never heard this story formally and I went to school in Pawhuska.”

He said his mom, Roan’s granddaughter, would rarely mention the dark past, but reminded him that he has named after her baby brother James and her grandpa Henry Roan.

For many non-native people, this movie will be the first time they learn about the Reign of Terror. Gray said he hopes that the interest in the Osage Nation will lead to more education about Native history.

“A lot of people said the same thing, ‘I’ve lived in Oklahoma my whole life. How come I didn’t know about this?’ I don’t have the answer to that,” Gray said. “But maybe despite the crazy politics that’s happening in education right now in Oklahoma, this kind of runs counter to that.”

With all the media attention, Gray said he will continue to do his best in filling historical gaps so that the story can be known in as much entirety as possible.
“It’s important for people to know that we aren’t dead,” he said. “We are alive and our story is important. It’s not just the Osage story, it’s an Oklahoma story. It’s an United States history story. It’s our collective story because the products of what happened to us were products of federal policies of those days that allowed people to do that. It’s a dark chapter that we can’t ignore or forget.”

“Killers of the Flower Moon” debuts in theaters on Oct. 6. Starting Oct. 20, the movie will also be available on AppleTV+.

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